


Not What It Seems

by oORasulOo



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Character(s), Aliens, Alternate Universe, Bigger On The Inside, Blood, Confusion, Gen, Grief/Mourning, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, Major Original Character(s), Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Original Character(s), Minor Violence, Misunderstandings, Mystery, Original Character(s), Recovery, Sad, Science Fiction, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, The Author Regrets Nothing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 01:39:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8778043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oORasulOo/pseuds/oORasulOo
Summary: A girl. Falling. A flash of light. Darkness.
Serenha Feroday doesn't know what's going on, but neither does anyone else. One second she was leaving her friend's house, and the next she's laying wounded on the ground lightyears away from Earth.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My muse has released a plot bunny and it wouldn't leave me alone. This is the result. Also, I might change the title if I can think of a better one.

 

Sarenha Feroday was talking to someone, their name escaping her, then she left the building, and as she did she tripped and fell. She didn't stop when she hit the ground, though, she kept falling. And falling. As soon as she left ground level everything went black, and she continued to fall.

She was terrified, scared mute. Then there was the pain. On the left side of her face, her shoulder and hip, then she was falling again, and more pain on her back. The air left her lungs in a whoosh, and the blackness spread to her mind as she passed out.  
         Pain. Unrelenting. She opens her eyes for a brief moment, squeezing them shut at the bright light before opening them again and letting her eyes adjust. Red. Why is there red? Why does she feel wet and sticky? Her vision blurs before clearing again, and she feels too exhausted to try and move. She sees her arm, red all over it. She vaguely realises it's blood before her eyes drift closed and she's pulled back into unconsciousness.   
         She awakens to pain once more, paralyzing pain, worse than before. Sarenha winces, and resists the urge to wince again at the pain that little bit of movement caused. The ground beneath her is warm. Red covers it. Blood, she remembers. Why is there blood? Her confused, blurry mind tries to make sense of it, but stops not long afterwards, the effort only causing a headache. She hears voices. People. Laughing. The world fades again.

    Serenha senses someone nearby. “Hey there’s someone here!” It sounds like a girl, but she can’t be for sure. There’s the sound of footsteps getting louder, closer. “She’s hurt!” The person calls. Her awareness of the world fades and blurs, and the next thing she knows there’s footsteps really close to her.

    “It’s going to be okay.” She hears a male voice tell her. She manages to open her eyes again. She hears an odd whirring sound, and sees a blue glow and something brown, clothing. She opens her mouth to try and speak, not even knowing what to say, but her throat is dry and the one syllable that manages to escape her lips is weak. It hurts to even try. “Hush, It’s alright.” He reassures her again.

    “Can you save her?” The girl asks, a few feet away from the man if she were to guess, but out of her vision. Sarenha closes her eyes again.

    “It’ll be close. We need to get her into the TARDIS as soon as we can.” There’s the whirring again, and a few moments later a vworp-vworp sound. She feels two people picking her up, one person by her arms and the other by her legs, and being moved.

    Another sound. A key being inserted into a lock. Again, Serenha tries to open her eyes, but they feel so heavy, now, and the temptation of unconsciousness, escaping the pain, is so tempting. But she tries nevertheless, and manages to crack her eyes open a little bit. Yellow. No, blonde. Blonde hair. The girl, it has to be, is carrying her, holding her legs up. They carry her through a door, and the temperature changes. The sound of their footsteps change as they step onto the metal grating. Every few seconds she’d hear a dripping sound. The world fades again as her eyes slip closed.

    She’s laying on something soft. It’s nice and warm, cozy.  There’s something light and soft resting on top of her. When Serenha tries opening her eyes, she finds it easier than the last few times. A pastel blue blanket covers her, and she’s laying on a white bed. She looks around, seeing all sorts of weird alien contraptions. She tries sitting up, but when she does it feels like there’s a ton of weight resting on top of her. She falls back to the bed, and cries out when she hits it, despite its softness. Serenha doesn’t try sitting up again, not for the moment.

    Her mind is a lot clearer, now, though she’s still puzzled at what happened. She was talking to a guy… Triston.. about work, and getting a new job, then she left the house, yeah, that’s what the building was, a house. His house. She was going back home, but then she tripped… tripped on what? and fell through the ground?? Now that she’s remembering, she recalls a very bright, blinding flash of light when she passed ground level. Was that why everything was so dark? Did she hit the ground and pass out or knock herself out or something? But then why does she hurt so much?

    Deciding to check herself for memory gaps, she starts at the basics. Her full name is Serenha Tress Feroday, She lives in Cardiff, the UK. Her favorite TV show is Doctor Who. She has strawberry brown wavy hair that goes down to her elbows and green eyes. She’s 5’7. With nothing seeming to be missing, she tests her voice.

    “Hello?” Her voice cracks, and she clears her throat before trying again. “Hello?” A lot better,  despite her throat being so dry. From what Serenha can remember, the people she last saw seemed pretty nice. “Is anyone there?” She asks. There isn’t an answer. No one comes for another 30 minutes, when she hears the door open and someone enter the room.

    “Oh, you’re awake. Hello!” The man says. Serenha looks at him in confusion.

    “Have I met you before?” She asks.

    “No… I don’t believe so. I’m The Doctor.” He introduces himself. She’s sure she’s seen him before.. the zero gravity hair… The Doctor… Oh. Doctor Who. He’s the 10th Doctor from Doctor Who. But how?

    “Serenha.”  She replies in kind. “What happened?” She asks.

    “I’m not sure,” The Doctor says as he walks over to a computer of sorts and looks at the readings. “We found you on the ground drifting in and out of consciousness. You looked near dead, with all that blood loss. From the scans it looks like you fell, except you weren’t around anything high enough to create enough damage, let alone find what had put that deep puncture wound in your upper arm just below your shoulder. It’ll still be sore so don’t try to move it.” He rambles.

    “How long have I been out?” Long enough for her shoulder to heal enough to only be sore, so a month? Maybe she was right about the coma, but something still isn't right.

    “Oh, 25 hours, 15 minutes, and 12 seconds.” He answers.

    “What? How can my arm have healed that fast?!” Serenha asks in surprise.

    “Calm down, you’re still healing and any stress will prolong it. I used a tissue regenerator. Easy fix, that.” He points at her shoulder. “You still have some cracked ribs so don’t try to sit up. I took a tissue regenerator to them, but they need some self healing in between for them to return to their prior strength. I'll have to use it again in 10 minutes and 48 seconds, then you’ll be able to sit up and walk around.”

    “Sorry for all the questions, but where am I?”

    “It’s alright, questions are how you learn, and you probably have a lot of them right now. You’re in the Tardis. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”

    “Time And Relative Dimension In Space” She says at the exact same time as The Doctor. Immediately after he says that, he asks,

    “How did you know that?”

    “I don’t know. My head hurts.” She complains, lifting her unwounded arm up to touch her temple. The Doctor gets out his sonic screwdriver and scans her with it.

    “Just the remains of the concussion. Here.” He puts the sonic back in his pocket and does something to her ears. “Better?” Serenha nods. “Good. Now, I have a few questions of my own.”

    “Alright.” She says.

    “How did you end up 16,852 light years away from Earth on a mostly abandoned planet?” The Doctor asks. Serenha gives him an odd look.

    “What?”

    “You heard me. How did you end up so far away from your planet when your species hasn’t even left your solar system?”

    “I didn’t even know I’d left Earth. I don’t know what’s going on. One second I was leaving my friend’s house and the next thing I knew I was falling and there was a bright flash of light. I didn’t stop when I should have, though. I never hit the ground, i just kept falling and there was blackness and I was so scared..” Her voice raises pitch as it trails off. “I didn’t know if I’d ever stop falling, i couldn’t see anything. I didn’t-” The Doctor cuts her off as he watches the readings spike.

    “It’s alright, you’re not there any more. I did detect rift energy on you. Where do you live?” He asks to try to change the subject.

    “Cardiff, the UK.” She answers.

    “You must have fallen through the Rift, then. Good thing it spat you out on Raxierrotryu IX. There is time energy in that rift, probably why you knew what TARDIS stood for.” The Doctor concludes as the pieces fall into place.

    “But then why have I seen you on a TV show called Doctor Who, with this girl named Rose and you travel the universe together?” Serentha asks in confusion.

    “Probably your mind trying to make sense of the time currents and energy it saw. It imagined what it saw as being on television. Good thing you weren’t in the rift for any longer than you were.” The Doctor explains.

    “Oh, okay.” That makes sense. The Doctor walks over to a table and grabs a 5 inch wide 1 foot long piece of odd looking technology and starts back towards her.

    “What is that?” Serentha asks as she looks at it in confusion.

    “It’s the tissue regenerator. It’s time to give them cracked ribs another healing boost.” He explains with a soft smile.

    “Will it hurt?” she asks, looking at it worriedly.

    “No, it’ll just tingle, sort of like when your foot falls asleep.”

    “Oh, okay.” She says, reassured.

    “Now I’m going to have to roll you onto your belly. That’ll be the worst part but I’ll try to make it as easy as I can on you.” He says as he sets the tissue regenerator down on the table next to the bed.

“Once we’re done with this, I’ll show you what’s outside, then I’ll take you home, since after this your body can heal itself on it’s own and you’ll be better than new so long as you go easy on it the next couple of days.”

    “Okay.” Serenha says.

    The Doctor goes over to a control panel and starts doing something. The bed lowers a few inches before coming to a gentle stop. He turns back to her and positions himself beside her.

    “Ready?” He asks. She nods. The Doctor starts rolling her onto her stomach as  gently as he can. Serenha still winces, but tries to help him despite the pain.

“There. Worst part is over.” He says once she’s positioned comfortably. The Doctor grabs the tissue regenerator and hovers it over her cracked ribs. He flicks a button and it starts to hum and vibrate. A soft purple light emits from it, and wherever it touches her skin it starts to tingle. The Doctor notices her start to move.

“You need to stay still.” He tells her. Serenha stops moving. She feels the tingle move deeper into her skin until it eventually stops about 3 or 4 inches in. The Doctor holds it there for a minute or two before a tone sounds from it and he turns it off. The tingling fades away.

“There we go.” He says, putting it back down on the table. He looks back at the readings. “You can stand up now.” When Serenha doesn’t move, he looks back at her.

“It’s alright, Serenha. It isn’t going to hurt, now. You can get up.” He reassures her.  She glances at him then testily rolls over. It doesn’t hurt. Gaining a bit of confidence, she tries sitting up.

Serenha puts her legs over the side of the bed and lets herself drop the few inches to the floor. She stumbles forward, her legs about to give out, stiff from lack of use. In seconds The Doctor is next to her, stopping her fall and holding her up.

“You alright?” he asks.

“Yeah, I think so.” She answers. She takes a step back, and he lets her go, staying nearby just in case.

“The TARDIS picked out some clothes for you. i’m pretty sure you don’t want to stay in a medical gown.” The Doctor says. Serentha looks down at herself.

“Um.. Yeah. Thanks. I can’t exactly go anywhere like this.”

“No, You can’t.” The Doctor agrees. “Not without looking silly. There’s a changing room in the corner, you’ll find the clothes in there. If you don’t like them I’ll show you to the wardrobe room and you can pick them out yourself, I just thought it would be quicker this way.”

“Thanks.” Serenha says, spotting said room and going over to it. “Oh, and Doctor?” She says. He hums.

“I was thirsty earlier, at some point. I’m not now but I don’t remember drinking anything. How did that happen?”

“The Tardis Automatic Medical Scanner sensed you needed water and provided you with the necessary electrolytes via inhalation. It created a temporary dome of energy over you so it wouldn’t have to flood the whole room with it.” He explains to her.

“Oh, okay.” Serenha says, accepting the explanation. She goes into the changing room and, finding she likes the provided clothing, puts it on. Blue Jeans and a teal and black T shirt. She leaves the changing room and goes back over to The Doctor, who’s standing next to the door waiting for her.

“Allons-Y.” He says with that goofy grin, and opens the door, leading her out into the hallway and to the right. The walk is a short one, and soon he’s opening another door and walking through into the console room. Serenha follows him in, looking around at the console and the coral supports.

The Doctor leads her over to the door and pulls them open dramatically, stepping to the side. Serenha looks out in wonder. A pair of suns set on the horizon, painting the sky, trees, foliage, and everything else in sight a blue green color.  The stars are just beginning to show themselves, constellations making themselves known. The color of the sky during the day is still there, a orangy pink color.

“Welcome to Estreth.” (Est-reth) He says, watching her reaction with a sparkle in his eye.

“It’s beautiful.” Serenha breathes as she watches the stars set.

“It is.” The Doctor agrees.

“Can I step outside?” She asks.

“Only for a few steps.  The atmosphere here lacks enough oxygen for you to breathe, and contains a trace amount of sulfuric dust.” He says. “If you stay close to the Tardis, she’ll create an artificial atmospheric bubble around herself and you’ll be safe.”

Serenha nods, and cautiously steps onto the earth-sky blue grass. She takes another step and looks around. She crouches down and feels the grass, and laughs.

“What’s so funny?” The Doctor asks, slightly amused but at the same time a little worried.

“I’m on a whole other planet, I don’t know how far away from Earth, touching alien grass, in an atmospheric bubble created by an alien ship that’s b-” She freezes, stands up, circles the Tardis, enters it again, walks up to the console, turns around, walks back out, and circles the tardis once more. “Bigger on the inside.” Laughter bubbles up inside her and she laughs once more.

“500 light years away.” The Doctor tells her.

“And- and a day or two ago I was talking about changing jobs with my friend, completely normal stuff.” She says, her laughter dying down. “I never expected anything like this to happen.”

“Yup.”

“Where is Rose, by the way?” Serenha asks.

“Oh, she’s asleep. She’ll be waking up after while. All that running wore her out.”

“You two love the running, though.” Serenha says with a grin.

“Love the running.” He returns the grin. “Come on, I’ll take you home. Where in Cardiff do you live?” She steps back into the Tardis.

“A block or two east of the Plass. Will I ever see you again?” She asks him as she walks over to the pilot’s seat to sit down.

“Oh, probably. Rose will want to say goodbye, I’m sure.” He answers, looking at her. He releases the handbrake, and Serentha grabs onto the seat, holding on as the  TARDIS begins to sway and buck through time and space, The Doctor driving her to Earth.

He lands the Tardis two blocks east of the Plass and, after activating the handbrake, walks over to the doors and opens them. Serenha steps out onto the green earth grass. She sees curtains move in the house she lives in with her sister, then the door opens and she comes running out.

“Serenha! Serenha I thought you were dead! It was in the newspaper and everything, it said you got run over by a bus, even showed your picture! What happened?” Samantha asks

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I didn’t get run over by a bus..” She says.

“Thank goodness!” She cries in relief. Serenha glances at The Doctor in confusion. He shrugs.

“Who is this?” She asks.

“This is The Doctor. Doctor, this is my sister Samantha.”

“Hello.” The Doctor says, grinning and giving her a quick wave. Sam waves back.

“Well, I’ve got to go do some repairs…” The Doctor says, pointing back at the tardis with his thumb.

“Doctor, Promise I’ll see you again?” Serentha asks.

“I promise.” The Doctor answers, looking at her. “And I don’t break my promises.” She nods.

“See you later, then.”

“It was nice meeting you.” Sam says. He goes back into the Tardis, closing the door behind him. The Tardis vworps and begins to dematerialise, slowly fading from view. Sam watches in shock.

“How…”

“I’ll explain later. Come on, let’s go inside.” Serenha says. The sisters go inside the house, closing the door behind them.

 

~*~

Three Days Later

 

“Who are you?” Sam snaps at Serenha. Serenha groans, annoyed at being woken up.

“I’ll ask again. Who. Are. You?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sis…”

“Don’t you call me Sis! The DNA results just came back from the corpse of my sister, and she is indeed my sister who got run over by the bus a week ago, now Who Are You?!!” Sam near yells, pushing Serenha off the bed. She falls with a thud onto the floor.

“I’m Serenha Feroday, you’re sister. I live here with you.” Serenha says, stumbling to her feet and away from Sam.

“LIAR! you dirty two faced look alike lied to me and made me think you’re my sister after I watched the news clip of MY SISTER getting hit by a bus and causing a massive wreck with multiple cars involved! Now tell me the truth or I’m calling the police and you’re getting OUT of my house!” Sam screams, her face red with anger, grief, and betrayal.

“I don’t understand. I’m alive, I wasn’t in that wreck, and I’m your sister, Sam.”

“STOP BLOODY LYING TO MY FACE! The blood test came back positive! The girl in the wreck was MY sister, and I only have one sister, so who are you?!!”

“I told you! I don’t know what’s going on, or what’s happening, but I am your sister! Please believe me!” Serentha says.

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! RIGHT NOW! I’M TIRED OF YOU LYING TO ME, IF YOU DON’T GET OUT RIGHT NOW I’M CALLING THE BLOODY POLICE AND GETTING YOU LOCKED UP FOR AS LONG AS I BLOODY CAN!” Sam screams. Serentha takes a few steps backwards, actually getting a bit scared. Sam aggressively walks over to a hidden corner and grabs a metal baseball bat. Serenha’s eyes widen.

“OUT! I’M NOT BLOODY WARNING YOU AGAIN!” Sam screams at her. Serenha stumbles backwards towards the door, keeping her eyes on Sam lest she do something crazy, like actually use that bat. She backpedals to the door.

“Okay, Okay, I’m leaving. See?” Serenha says.

“TURN A BLOODY ROUND! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR BLOODY FACE, AND DON’T YOU HESITATE AT THAT BLOODY DOOR NEITHER!” Sam yells, a tear making its way down her face. Of anger, grief, or both, Serenha doesn’t know, but she does know that grief and anger are a bad combination. Serenha doesn’t turn around, despite being told to, but she does quicken her pace towards the door.

Once she gets to the door, she stops to open it. Sam, seeing this as hesitation, starts to swing the bat. Serenha ducks, feeling the artificial wind the bat caused just above her head.

“Stop it! I’m leaving if you’ll let me open the-” She had turned around to open the door, and now sees the bat flying towards her once more. Serenha tries to duck again, but the dodge is useless as Sam brings the bat straight down onto her still-healing back ribs. Serenha screams in agony, hearing the bones rebreak.

 Sam goes to swing again, and it’s only with the adrenaline racing through her veins that she manages to stand up again, having collapsed on the floor, and turn the knob on the door, pulling it open. Sam notices she’s about to leave, but in her blind grief-fueled rage doesn’t care, swinging the bat and hitting Serenha in the right side with all her rage-fueled strength.

She stumbles, falling onto the concrete as the air leaves her and she gasps to get it back as she stumbles to her feet, starting to run. Sam runs out of the house after her, leaving the door open, bat still in hand. Seeing this, Serenha starts to run, forgetting about the pain in her back and side, adrenaline and the will to survive driving her forward so fast she’d be surprised if she wasn’t too busy running for her life.

“Help!” She yells as well as she can, still breathless but trying nevertheless to call out to anyone who will hear. “Please, she’s trying to kill me!” Serenha is pretty convinced that she is now, too, despite that not being her original intention. No one moves to help her, too busy dodging out of the way of her and the grief-crazed woman pursuing her.

Serenha vaults a fence and keeps running, Sam a bat and an arm’s length behind her and gaining. 24 hours or more of straight inactivity, along with extra rest, then regaining one wound and earning another can really slow you down, but she doesn’t dare give up.

She enters a park and runs over a small bridge. She hears her heart beating in her ears. “Help!” Serenha calls again as she continues to sprint through the park, not slowing at all. She jumps over a bench, faster to go over than around, and her foot catches on it, making her faceplant into the ground. Sam catches up, raising up the bat as Serenha hurries to get up and away from her again.

“You can stop now.” A familiar voice says.

“Shut Up!” Sam yells at the man, and takes off after Serenha once more.  

It’s a quarter mile or less until Sam grabs onto the collar of her shirt, and yanks her backwards onto her back, making her cry out in pain again. She scrambles to get away. “You Liar! Imposter!” Sam yells, her chest heaving.

“That’s enough, Samantha.” The Doctor says, slowly approaching the two.

“She lied! She has my sister's face and she used it to lie to me!” She says.

“I’m sure it’s all just a big misunderstanding. You need to calm down.”

“CALM DOWN?!? I DON’T HAVE TO CALM THE BLOODY **** DOWN! DON’T YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, MISTER!” Sam screams at him.

“Okay, okay.” The Doctor says, stopping his approach. “How about we go back to my place and we can talk about it?”

“I’m not going anywhere!” Sam exclaims.

“We’ll stay here, then.” The Doctor continues to try to defuse the situation. “You called her an imposter, how come?”

“She has the face of my dead sister! She acted like my sister! My sister got hit by a bus last week, and it’s her fault! She had my sister killed so she could take her place!” She says irrationally.

“It’s not her fault. She can’t control what or who she looks like.” Rose says. Serenha looks over at her, just now noticing that she’s there.

“She needs to be locked up!” Sam says. The Doctor pauses for a moment, looking her over.

“Alright.” He says simply. Sam just looks at him.

“I’ll take her to that police box over there,” He points in the direction of the Tardis, “And I’ll arrest her.”

“Alright. Do it then, what are you waiting for?!” Sam asks, calming down a little bit. The Doctor walks over to Serenha, helping her to her feet. He and Rose start walking her back to the Tardis. The siren of actual police sound in the distance, coming for Samantha, who watches the trio go towards the blue police box.

The Doctor, Rose, and Serenha enter the Tardis as the police are getting out of their cars to arrest Samantha. The Tardis  de-materialises to float in the time vortex as the trio go to the med bay to fix her up hopefully for the last time.

A few hours later, Serenha is up and walking again. “What happened back there?” Rose asks. Serenha and Rose are sitting in the console room on the worn, tan pilot's chair. The Doctor lays under the console, tinkering and doing some repairs.

“I don’t know. When I woke up, she was asking who I was, and that I wasn’t her sister. She kicked me out of the house and was threatening and chasing me with a bat, like she was mad. I don’t know what happened.. Apparently I’m not her sister, but I am… I’m confused.” She says

“Well, you could stay with us until we figure it out and fix it.” Rose offers. “Me and The Doctor talked about it earlier, he doesn’t have a problem with it, and I’d like to get to know you a bit better, if you want to.”

“I don’t know what else to do right now. Legally it is her house, I mean..  I’ll just have to see what happens. I’ll stay here until it’s sorted, I guess.” Serehna says.

Rose smiles. “Okay. The Tardis will grow a room for you, so don’t worry about going back and getting anything."

The Doctor slides out from under the console and stands to his feet. “So, all of time and space. Where do you want to go?” He puts his hand on the hand brake and looks at her readily.

“All of time and space… That is a very broad question. How about a whole other planet in the future?” Serenha suggests.

“Oh, I know a place you’ll like. Arizona. The planet, not the state.” The Doctor says with a grin. He looks like he's about to go into another ramble, so Serenha cuts him off.

“Let’s go, then.” Serenha says. She would have smiled, but with all that just happened it’s a bit hard to.

The Doctor smiles, and so does Rose. “Allons-Y!” And he releases the handbrake.

 

~*~

In another universe

 

“A family frantically searches for a girl who suddenly disappeared less than a week ago. She was last seen leaving her friends house, and there has been no trace of where she went. Samantha, Serenha Feroday’s sister, begs that anyone who sees her please call their phone and the police department, the numbers are at the bottom of the screen. Back to you, Ben.” The reporter says.

“Thank you, Zach. Now on to the weather. There’s going to be light showers tomorrow with a slight chance of thunderstorms along…” Dillan, Sam’s brother, turns off the television.

“I hope we find her.” He says to Willow, his mother, who is looking out the window.

“Me too, though I fear we never will.” She says, and when he doesn’t say anything in reply, leaves the room.


End file.
